80G on Your NGO Website: What to Display, What Donor Details to Collect and How to Build Accurate Receipts

An NGO's website should do three things about 80G: show the approval details accurately so donors can trust them, collect at the moment of payment the donor information that tax reporting needs, and issue receipts that state only what is true. Section 80G lets eligible donors claim a deduction for donations to approved organisations; the NGO itself gains no tax benefit from the approval, and not every donation qualifies. This guide has been rewritten from an earlier version that explained 80G as a compliance topic. Your accountant is the right person for tax filing, and we are not a tax adviser. What a website builder can add is the part that goes wrong most often in practice: a donation form that does not capture the right data, receipts that overstate what a donor can claim, and an 80G badge that is out of date. The guide covers what to display, what to collect, how receipts should read, how to treat donation types that do not qualify, how to reconcile payments and what to ask your developer. For the wider picture see our guide to an 80G compliant donation platform.

Rules, forms and deadlines are amended from time to time. Everything below that concerns tax is stated in general terms and linked to the Income Tax Department's own pages; confirm the current position with a chartered accountant before you build or publish anything.

What 80G Means for a Donor, and What It Does Not

Under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, a donor who gives to an approved institution can claim a deduction from taxable income, subject to conditions and limits. Three facts shape the website.

1. The donor claims it, not the NGO. The NGO's 80G approval allows donors to claim; it is separate from 12A/12AB registration, which concerns the NGO's own income, and from FCRA and CSR-1, which concern foreign funds and corporate CSR work. Your site should not blur them into one "tax exempt" badge.
2. A deduction is not a refund. The percentage depends on the category of the approval, and some categories have an income-linked limit. A donor in a 50 percent category who gives ₹10,000 may be able to deduct ₹5,000 from taxable income; the saving is that amount multiplied by their tax rate, and it also depends on other circumstances.
3. Not every donor can use it. Deductions of this kind are generally not available if the donor has opted for the new tax regime (Section 115BAC), and the choice is made by the donor. A website should therefore avoid promising a saving.

A cautious sentence for the donation page is: "Donations to [NGO name] are eligible for deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, subject to the donor's circumstances and the conditions of the Act." It states the position without guaranteeing an outcome.

What to Display on the Website

Donors, corporate partners and payment providers check an NGO's credentials before giving. Put them where they can be found, and keep them accurate.

The approval block

Show, in text and not only in an image:

• The NGO's exact legal name, as it appears on the approval
• PAN
• The 80G approval number and date, and the validity period shown on the order
• 12A/12AB registration details, labelled as such
• Registered address and contact details
• Links to the latest audited accounts and annual report where you publish them (see our guide to transparency and impact reporting)

Place a summary near the donate button and the full block on an About or governance page, as described in our article on the About and governance page.

Keep it current

Approvals are issued for a period, and renewal dates matter. A website that still shows an expired approval is a reputational and, potentially, a regulatory problem. Add the renewal date to the organisation's calendar and, if you can, store the approval details as data that the whole site reads from, so that a single edit updates the footer, the donation page and the receipts.

What not to display

• Do not display "100% tax-free donations" or similar slogans. They overstate the position.
• Do not show a deduction percentage on every page unless you know exactly which category applies to every donation.
• Do not use another organisation's registration numbers, or display an approval that you have only applied for.

What the Donation Form Must Collect

The most useful thing a website can do for 80G is capture the right data when the donor is paying, because reconstructing it at year-end is slow and error-prone. Approved NGOs are generally required to file a statement of donations (Form 10BD) with the Income Tax Department each financial year, due on 31 May after the year ends, and to give donors a certificate (Form 10BE). Check the Department's current instructions for the filing details and deadlines. The statement relies on donor details, so the form should collect them.

Fields to capture

The PAN of a donor is sensitive. Collect it only where needed, transmit it over HTTPS, restrict who can see it, mask it on screen after entry and avoid showing it in emails or URLs. Our guide to NGO donor data protection under the DPDP Act explains the wider obligations, and the article on donation site security and hosting covers the technical side.

Small UPI donations

For small donations a donor may pay from another person's UPI app or from a shared account, so the name returned by the payment system may not be the donor's. Do not assume the payer's name is the donor's name. Ask for the donor's details on the form before sending them to pay, and store them against the order so that the payment can be matched after the callback arrives. If a donor declines to give a PAN, still issue a normal acknowledgement, and make clear that the donation will not be reported for a deduction claim.

Ask early, not at year-end

A donor who has just paid is engaged. One who is asked for a PAN eight months later rarely replies. If you did not collect the data at payment, a short "complete your 80G details" link in the receipt email lets the donor supply it afterwards, up to the date you set for yourself before filing.

What the Receipt Should Say

A receipt generated by the website is a record that donors and auditors may rely on, so it should be accurate and consistent with the books. Typical contents are:

• NGO legal name, address and PAN
• 80G approval number, date and validity (only if currently valid)
• A unique receipt number from a continuous series
• Donor name, address and PAN (where collected)
• Amount in figures and words, date and payment mode
• Payment reference
• Whether the gift is general or corpus, where applicable
• A line stating that deduction claims are subject to the Income Tax Act and the donor's own circumstances
• An authorised signature or approved digital authentication

Do not print a promised saving, and do not issue an 80G receipt for a donation that does not qualify. The wording should follow your accountant's advice.

Receipts for donations that do not qualify

Several categories should receive an ordinary acknowledgement and not an 80G receipt. The statement of the rules below is general; confirm each with your accountant.

If the website offers merchandise, a gala dinner or a corporate sponsorship alongside donations, make sure the checkout labels each properly, as a donation or as a payment for goods or services, and that receipts follow suit. Mixing them is a common source of problems at audit time.

Corpus, General and Restricted Gifts

NGOs commonly accept gifts for particular purposes. A donor may direct that a gift is for the corpus fund, for a named project or for general use. The website should offer these choices only if the NGO's finance team accounts for them differently, and the choice should be stored with the payment. A "corpus" option should appear only when you have a process for obtaining and keeping the donor's written direction. Do not label large gifts as corpus merely because the NGO wants to treat them that way.

Reconciliation: Making the Website Match the Books

A donation database that does not agree with the bank statement is a liability when you prepare the annual statement. Build a routine.

1. Daily: compare gateway settlements with the bank credits and flag differences.
2. Weekly: review failed, pending and refunded payments, and confirm that receipts for refunded gifts are cancelled or corrected.
3. Monthly: compare the donation register with the accounting ledger, and check that receipt numbers are in sequence with no gaps or duplicates.
4. Quarterly: sample donor records for missing PANs, incomplete addresses and invalid formats, and send reminders.
5. Before filing: export the donor statement and have the accountant review it, rather than creating it from scratch.

Store the gross amount, the gateway fee and the net amount separately, as discussed in our article on handling UPI fee changes in a donation checkout, so that the receipt shows the amount the donor paid while the ledger shows what the NGO received. Our guide to the donor help page, failed payments and corrections describes how to handle donors who report problems.

Approvals and Their Dates: A Checklist for the Web Team

The tax filing itself belongs to the NGO's accountant, but the web team should hold a short list.

• The legal name, PAN, and approval numbers and dates, stored in one place
• The validity and renewal dates of each approval, with a reminder to review the site's display a month before
• The financial year-end and the filing deadline for the donation statement, shown on the finance team's calendar
• The person who owns the receipt template and signs off any change
• The version history of the receipt template, so that old receipts can be reproduced

If the NGO has applied for approval but does not yet hold it, the site must not state that it does. Say that an application is in progress, if you wish, and nothing more.

Common Website Mistakes Around 80G

• Showing an expired approval, or one belonging to a related organisation.
• Offering "100% tax saving" language that no rule supports.
• Not collecting PAN or address at payment, then chasing donors by email.
• Issuing 80G receipts for in-kind donations or payments that buy goods.
• Resetting the receipt numbering when the site is rebuilt, causing duplicates.
• Storing PANs in plain text in the database or including them in emails.
• Allowing receipts to be edited by anyone who can log in.
• Letting a payment provider's receipt stand in for the NGO's own receipt, when the two carry different information.

What to Ask Your Developer

1. Where are our approval details stored, and does every page and receipt read from that one source?
2. Which donor fields do we capture, and where is the PAN stored and who can see it?
3. How do we handle donors who decline to give a PAN?
4. How are receipt numbers generated, and can a receipt be re-issued or cancelled with a record?
5. How do in-kind, cash and purchase-type payments differ in the system?
6. Can we export a donor-wise list for our accountant in one step, in a format they accept?
7. What reconciliation reports exist, and who receives them?
8. How is the donor data backed up, and what happens when a donor asks us to delete or correct it?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can every NGO issue an 80G receipt?

No. Only an NGO that holds a valid 80G approval, and within the scope of that approval, should issue receipts describing a donation as eligible for a deduction. A trust deed, registration certificate or 12A/12AB registration alone does not create 80G eligibility.

What donor information does an NGO website need to collect for 80G?

Generally the donor's name as per their tax records, address, PAN or another permitted identification, the amount, date and mode of payment and the payment reference, plus the type of gift where relevant. Collect it at payment and confirm with your accountant exactly what the current filing requires.

Can a donor claim 80G for a cash donation?

A deduction is generally not available for cash donations above ₹2,000, so an NGO should encourage traceable payment methods and should not issue an eligible receipt for a larger cash gift. Confirm the current rule with a tax professional.

Are online UPI and card donations eligible?

They can be, if made to an approved NGO and if the donor's details are recorded accurately and linked to the payment. The website should capture donor information before sending the donor to pay, since the payment system's payer name may not match the donor's.

Does 80G approval mean donations are exempt from GST or other rules?

No. 80G concerns the donor's deduction. Whether GST or other rules apply depends on the nature of the transaction, for example whether the payer receives something in return. The wording of agreements and the benefits provided can matter, so ask a tax professional.

Where to Start

Open your own donation page and make a small test donation. Check what the page says about 80G, whether the form asked for the details a statement would need, what the receipt says and whether the receipt number, amount and date match your bank credit. Then compare the approval details on the site with the original order. Differences in any of these are a to-do list for your developer and your accountant.

Govindani Infotech is a website design and development company in Pune, at 2nd Floor, Landmark Plaza, 206 Satara Road, Parvati Paytha, Pune 411009. We have built donation websites for non-profits across India; see our NGO website development page and our website creation services. To review your donation form and receipts, contact us or call 092019 58274.

Sources:

• Income Tax Department — e-filing portal: Form 10BD and Form 10BE (check the current instructions)
• Income Tax Department — Section 80G, Income Tax Act, 1961
• Income Tax Department — Taxation of charitable and religious trusts and institutions
• Ministry of Electronics and IT — Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

This article was rewritten in 2026 from an earlier version and keeps its original publication date. About the author: written by the Govindani Infotech NGO web development team in Pune.